120 Seconds

                               

RADIATION 

        120 seconds is the amount of time I have to do radiation next week to be done with treatment.
I completed the last of the wide radiation coverage today and then my Doc came in and she and the technicians elevated me, spun me around, and drew on me, all while I laid helpless on the table, the spinning part was quite fun as I had never done that on the table before.
        As I said in last blog, the boost is a bit different in that they are isolating the treatment area to my incision which is the most likely site for cells to be hanging out at if they didn't already get them with the surgical removal, chemotherapy, or previous radiations. It also involves a cone shaped attachment onto the machine which gets very close to me, but does not touch me. The other difference is instead of 10-15 mins, it is only 30 seconds, so 5 days of 30 seconds gets me 120 seconds left!

This is 28 days of radiation and what it did to my skin. looks yucky, but there are far worse out there and I luckily got no open areas. It is sore, but I will continue with the creams and it will be better in no time. The blue mark is the boost site, so that area will get a bit worse over the next week.

                                     
                   This is the radiation machine with the cone attachment which will deliver my boost.

HAIR

Can you tell which one is the peach fuzz on my head and which one is the real peach? They look and feel pretty similar right now. It is very exciting to be feeling something on my head again. There are some longer darker hairs in the back according to Ruby which see says are growing very fast. I did alittle research and apparently your hair only grows about a half an inch a month, so this is going to take awhile, but it is exciting all the same.

NEXT STEP

I had my 6 week follow up with the Oncologist. My labs were OK. I am still anemic and my white cells are on the lower range of normal, but that is expected. She said I look good and we talked about the Tamoxifen.  This is a pill I will take once a day for the next five years which also helps decrease the chance of reoccurance. Yes, as with any medication there are side effects, but the benefits of taking it outweigh any of the risks. I am not going to drive myself crazy looking at the side effects, if I get some, I will deal with them, if I don't, lucky me! 

I don't go back again to the ROC for three months! but it is back to radiation on Monday, my last Monday!

My sister found this picture for me and thought it should be included on the blog, so thank  you Sis, here it is!